U.N. investigators say Syria bombed convoy and did so deliberately

By Nick Cumming-Bruce, and Anne Barnard

March 1, 2017

Photo: KARAM AL-MASRI, Stringer

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TOPSHOT - Syrian civilians and rescuers gather at site of government forces air strikes in the rebel held neighbourhood of Al-Shaar in Aleppo on September 27, 2016. Syria's army took control of a rebel-held district in central Aleppo, after days of heavy air strikes that have killed dozens and sparked allegations of war crimes. / AFP PHOTO / KARAM AL-MASRIKARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images less

TOPSHOT - Syrian civilians and rescuers gather at site of government forces air strikes in the rebel held neighbourhood of Al-Shaar in Aleppo on September 27, 2016. Syria's army took control of a rebel-held ... more

GENEVA - First the Syrian air force dropped barrel bombs from helicopters on a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy, then fired rockets from jets, then strafed survivors with machine guns, U.N. investigators said Wednesday in a report that found government forces not only had committed the attack in September but had done so deliberately, a war crime.

The attack, which killed 14 aid workers and stoked international outrage, was "meticulously planned" and "ruthlessly carried out," the report said.

It called the attack "one of the most egregious" of many war crimes that investigators said had been committed during the government's five-month offensive to take full control of Aleppo.

The report, by a U.N. commission of inquiry that has been monitoring Syria's conflict for years, is one of the most hard-hitting official assessments yet.

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Russian airstrike seen as mistake

Russian aircraft mistakenly bombed Syrian fighters who are being trained by the United States, the commander of the U.S.-led operation in Iraq and Syria said Wednesday.

U.S. advisers were about 3 miles away when the Russian strike occurred.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands the U.S.-led task force that is fighting the militants in Iraq and Syria, said the Russian airstrike, which took place Tuesday, led to casualties among the Syrian fighters, but he declined to say how many.

Townsend said the Russian attack appeared to have been a mistake: The Russian military thought it was bombing villages held by the Islamic State, but in fact they were recently occupied by Syrian Arab fighters.

New York Times

Its account of the convoy attack went much further than findings of a U.N. inquiry set up by then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which concluded in December that the convoy had been bombed from the air but did not identify the attackers.

The 31-truck convoy organized by the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been carrying food, medicine, children's clothes and other humanitarian supplies destined for families in opposition-controlled areas and had been traveling with the government's permission.

The government of President Bashar Assad had no immediate comment on the new report, but it has repeatedly denied responsibility for the convoy assault or any other war crimes in the conflict, which Assad regards as a battle against terrorism.

Syrian officials and their Russian allies have suggested that insurgents were responsible for hitting the convoy, or perhaps even warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing Islamic State targets in Syria. The Americans, who operate in areas far from the convoy assault site, have called such suggestions absurd.

The report released Wednesday found that war crimes had been committed by government and rebel forces, corroborating many of the worst allegations that Aleppo residents had made against both sides.

For months, the Syrian forces and their Russian allies bombarded eastern Aleppo as part of a strategy to force surrender, the commission's chairman, Paulo Pinheiro, told reporters in Geneva, expressing frustration that the Syrian government had not cooperated with the investigation.

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